Now is the Time for Action!

 Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. People who grew up, as I did, in an age of typewriters (google a video if you need to), will remember that phrase as the most common practice sentence for ‘touch typing.’ Of course, an updated version would replace ‘men’ with ‘people’.

There are many ways we can step up to make a difference between now and the next election, and I encourage you not to limit yourself to the easiest ones. I will mention a few that come to mind, most of which I have done in the past, recently, or will do my best to dedicate some time to. As I come out of a near depression following Trump’s election in November exacerbated by the sheer incompetence and overreach of his governing. which are resulting in quickly sinking public approval, I have remembered how good it can make me feel to take action. Here are some of the ways you can make a difference.

Talk to friends, neighbors, co-workers, fellow members of churches, clubs, or the guy sitting next to you at the bar. Ask them how they’re feeling about the first months of Trump’s second term. If they think everything is great, don’t argue. If they have doubts, draw them out, be sympathetic. You don’t have to try to persuade them—it can take several interactions before they are ready to acknowledge what you see as obvious truth and facts.

Contact our Republican representatives in Congress. It’s easy to think they won’t follow our pleas for them to oppose harmful legislation or hold the administration accountable, but if enough of us do this often enough, they will begin to understand that they may face difficulties in the next election if they ignore their constituents. There’s a great app available, “5 Calls,”  that makes it easy, and I try to call every day. It just takes a few minutes and the app provides suggested points to make on various issues. Make sure to identify yourself as a constituent. If you’re Republican and/or voted for Trump, mention that!

Do you have more money than time? There are many ways to donate to make a difference, and if you’re like me and have made some donations you are probably on every candidate and non-profit’s mailing list now. It can be a real turn off. For orgs that my wife and I know are doing great work, we budget an annual donation and then refuse all requests for additional. Currently, I think that the courts are the most effective arena for stopping the worst actions of the Trump administration, so I am donating to a few organizations that are bringing lawsuits to stop the harm like ACLU, Democracy Forward, and State Democracy Defenders Action.

There are many advocacy organizations in West Virginia working on issues that may be  important to you. Volunteering for them (and/or donating) can end up impacting elections in our state because these organizations notify supporters about which candidates are best on their issues, sometimes buying ads and knocking on doors. 

Many of the Republican supermajority in the legislature have  modeled themselves after Donald Trump. They are ignoring norms and attacking or revoking support for programs and government agencies that provide essential services while rewarding their rich donors including corporations with tax cuts and other favors. Consider donating or volunteering for WV Citizens Action (for 50 years fighting for rights, public policy, democracy and the environment in WV), WV Rivers Coalition (protecting our land and waters), West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, Together for Public Schools WV (project of WV Center for Budget and Policy), Moms Demand Action WV (gun safety), WV Free (reproductive health and more), Fairness WV (LGBTQ+ protection), WV Black Voter Impact Initiative to name a few.

Don’t wait until a month before the 2026 election to consider volunteering to make calls, send texts, knock on doors, or help out a candidate or county party effort. It takes time to establish trust with voters suspicious of government who think “they’re all corrupt.” In WV we are small enough to get to know the candidates personally, and if you do, you can tell people what you know about the ones you support. Of course, if you’re passionate enough, consider running!

Finally, while protesting may not be your thing, when large numbers of people make their dissatisfaction known in public, it can become a big news story that brings others out who may otherwise be fearful of making their opinions known. A feeling of being part of a peaceful movement is a powerful force for change.

We are not likely to change our deep red state significantly in one election cycle. But if we make some gains, we can start a change that builds over time. Now is the time for all of us to come to the aid of our country! 

Paul Epstein is a retired teacher and musician living in Charleston

Rural White Appalachians Feel Victimized, We Should Listen

    I recently wrote an op-ed (Charleston Gazette-Mail, 2/15/23 "Is it Woke Just to be a Decent Person?") explaining and debunking the negative attacks by extremist Republicans on what they call “woke” (the English teacher in me wants to correct that to wokeness). They apply this taunt to anyone who holds ideas different from theirs, especially those held by Democrats, liberals, progressives. Beliefs such as that democracy is important; that our Constitution protects us from being subject to the religious rules and practices that may not agree with our own; that American history is not simply a story of rugged individualists conquering a wilderness and building a modern nation, but that our history contains many shameful chapters in which the majority white settlers oppressed, murdered, and stole from the indigenous people, they enslaved people they imported from Africa and the Caribbean and any immigrants whose skin was not as light as most northern Europeans. Republicans want laws that protect them from having to treat people equally whose sexual identity does not match the two genders recognized in the Christian Bible, ban books, teachers, and ideas that might cause their children to question the narrative of American greatness in all things at all times or cause them discomfort as they grapple with difficult issues encountered in factual history.

Remember Hillary Clinton’s comment that there were different “baskets” of Republicans, most of whom were reasonable and could be worked with, but a minority of whom belonged in the “basket of deplorables?” Remember Obama’s observation to a group of educated urbanites that when some working class folks lose the industries that had supported their communities for generations, sometimes “they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations?”

Clinton and Obama weren’t wrong.  Who could argue that some of those who stormed the U.S. Capitol or those who marched with Tiki torches in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us,” weren’t acting deplorably? While I believe one shouldn’t label a person deplorable, suggesting they can’t change, aren’t many rural white Americans angry, going to churches or seeking news sources that tell them criminals and rapists are flooding over the borders to change our way of life? Aren’t some even considering using their guns to start a revolution?

But I want to argue that we are not going to change minds by writing people off as crazy, stupid, uneducated, or un-American. Despite our facts, statistics, and logic, many every day West Virginians feel as if they are victimized by life in America—and they are not wrong.

West Virginians endure jokes and even discrimination because they use the language they grew up with, a dialect that includes words like ain’t, usages like “he don’t,” accents that make it hard to distinguish pin from pen or make flower sound like “flar.” Their pride in independence: the ability to eke out sustenance from a rocky and mountainous region causes them to be subjected to stereotypes that they walk around with rifles, barefoot, carrying a jug of moonshine. Of course some do—and celebrate that, and will invite you to join them hunting or drinking. Many people believe Trump wasn’t entirely wrong when he said, “there were very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville. We’ve had presidents, writers of the Constitution who it’s hard not to call “very fine people,” but they owned other people, profited off their labor, while being civil and polite to others. Among the January 6 rioters were people who truly believed they were protesting a stolen election. We should never define people in black and white, though their actions can be defined. As to their character, there are always shades of grey. 

My message today is simply this, we can’t write off our neighbors as beyond redemption. They may believe things that we know are untrue, they may fit Appalachian stereotypes: suspicious of outsiders, believers in strict religions that promise hellfire in the hereafter for anyone who touches demon alcohol or strays from moral strictures regarding gender and sexuality.  They may speak and write in what appear to be illiterate ways, and they may express hatred for people who do not look like them, who they actually may fear. Nevertheless, they can be decent people who would “give you the shirt off your back,” tow your car out of a ditch, give you a basket of fresh vegetables. 

Perhaps we can change their minds, but not unless we start from a place of respect. They may be extremists and may be fast asleep to the changes we see in the culture of the United States and the world, but we can begin to wake them up only if we rise above our prejudices.

Paul Epstein is a retired teacher and musician living in Charleston, WV